4 ms·

> Do scientist get any of the profit from paper sales? No. And most of the time, if you want a paper that's behind a paywall, email the corresponding author an

> Do scientist get any of the profit from paper sales? No. And most of the time, if you want a paper that's behind a paywall, email the corresponding author and they'd be delighted to know that someone on the planet actually cares, and then email you a pdf, copyright be damned. Honestly, sci-hub is the best website of the last decade; I use it every day. It works better than the publishers' websites (that I have legitimate access to). It's just excellent. It's founder should be made a saint.

Shorel 5y ago
> copyright be damned What? Do the journals get copyright over the authors too???
- elcritch 5y ago
  Often yes they do get assigned the copyright for the article.
  - azalemeth 5y ago
    Indeed. The horrible phrase is 'copyright transfer agreement', which is typically a condition of being published. My experience is that the better journals are more of an arse about copyright. I've just written two book chapters and spent maybe a day getting permissions to reuse published figures, sometimes including my own (!) in other works.
    - betterunix2 5y ago
      On the other hand, publishers have very little power when it comes to enforcing their copyrights when the author of an article decides to make it available on their personal web page. I have never met a researcher who refused to provide a copy of a paper when asked, despite technically violating a copyright by doing so. Academic publishers know that if they start threatening researchers they are playing with fire -- their business model is already obsolete and is only kept alive by institutional inertia, and the last thing they want is for researchers to find the motivation needed to ditch the publishing companies (the technology is widely available, now it is just a problem of politics and of organizing a community to change).
      - daxelrod 5y ago
        Some journals’ copyright assignments have explicit carve-outs for authors to distribute their own work.

Shorel 5y ago

> copyright be damned What? Do the journals get copyright over the authors too???

elcritch 5y ago
Often yes they do get assigned the copyright for the article.
- azalemeth 5y ago
  Indeed. The horrible phrase is 'copyright transfer agreement', which is typically a condition of being published. My experience is that the better journals are more of an arse about copyright. I've just written two book chapters and spent maybe a day getting permissions to reuse published figures, sometimes including my own (!) in other works.
  - betterunix2 5y ago
    On the other hand, publishers have very little power when it comes to enforcing their copyrights when the author of an article decides to make it available on their personal web page. I have never met a researcher who refused to provide a copy of a paper when asked, despite technically violating a copyright by doing so. Academic publishers know that if they start threatening researchers they are playing with fire -- their business model is already obsolete and is only kept alive by institutional inertia, and the last thing they want is for researchers to find the motivation needed to ditch the publishing companies (the technology is widely available, now it is just a problem of politics and of organizing a community to change).
    - daxelrod 5y ago
      Some journals’ copyright assignments have explicit carve-outs for authors to distribute their own work.